I'm building an oven. Not a dinky little EM/convective IR oven -- I have one of those. I don't need to explain the energy cost of that thing. Although roasting results in nicer flavor it's far more efficient to boil the blasted things. No, I'm building a real, old-fashioned wood-fired oven.
Sigma 957 is a hot planet, and despite the humidity there is generally a severe fire danger almost all the time. Forrest fires happen, but when they do they are hotter and more devastating than Earthly events. As result the aspergum trees -- pretty much all I have around here, looking like giant asparagus with sticky sap -- are built in layers. Some of the layers are filled with structural polysaccharides full of flame-ready energy. Alternating layers contain flame-retardant polymers. You could use up a whole field of kindling and never get them to burn.
Fortunately Lieff is a pyro, and he worked out in detail a method for building campfires from the native flora. First you cut the trees into logs. Then you age the logs 3 to 12 weeks, which lets natural enzymatic activity break down the polymers. Then you cook the logs to remove any remaining moisture and further break down long-chain molecules. At first you can use your electric oven, but preferably the cooking is done by piling the green logs next to your hot fire. After they are aged and cooked they are ready to burn, and hopefully cook another batch of aged logs.
With an oven running on native fuels I can roast tangroot -- even if it still takes hours -- using a tiny fraction of the energy I'm using now. It's ultimately not sustainable, and yet I think it's worth the small amount of harvesting required. Nonetheless I'm building the oven using local rocks and closer to my blind than my hab. I'm not really sure I need everyone's approval at this point.
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